SDCC ’18-‘STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS’ is Back for Another Season

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been ten, yes, years since Dave Filoni introduced the animated feature film and corresponding series Star Wars: The Clone Wars into Star Wars canon… and it’s BACK! Today Filoni and others reflected on the show’s origins, finale, and the last ten years at San Diego Comic-Con, and even announced a new season.

Filoni, sitting on a panel together with series line producer Athena Portillo and actors Ashley Eckstein (Ahsoka) and Matt Lanter (Anakin Skywalker), kicked off the panel by showing the original Clone Wars trailer shown at Celebration in 2007… which it took Filoni over a week to locate among the Lucasfilm archives.

Describing the early days of the show’s production, Filoni informed the audience how it took him and George Lucas two weeks to strategize twenty-seven episodes and write them with a goal of writing three episodes a day. Filoni would draw dozens of sketches a day after meeting with Lucas, and was able to locate some of those sketches in the archives, including this preliminary drawing of the original crew:

And this concept sketch, featuring Aurra Sing, Cad Bane, and a young Boba Fett from a Bane/Fett story arc that was sadly never completed:

Filoni wound down the panel by thanking fans and then showing the final scene of Ahsoka walking away from the Jedi Order for good…. Leaving Ashley Eckstein in tears.

Of course Filoni couldn’t leave us on such a sad note. Instead, he shocked the crowd by announcing a new season of Clone Wars!

Yes, you read that correctly: Captain Rex and the gang are returning for another tour of duty!

Filoni teased the new season with a con-exclusive trailer that you can now see here:

I’m certain the look of shock on fans’ faces mirrored the one Anakin wore as the scene pans to a holovid of Ahsoka saying, simply, “Hello, master. It’s been a while.”

These are exciting times, Star Wars fans! Keep an eye out for the new season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, coming soon to Disney’s new streaming channel, Disney Direct!

(This article was written in collaboration with our man on the scene, Junior Felix, who was able to provide these Con-exclusive photos!)

About The Author

Lawyer by trade, writer by passion. Author of 'The Deep Space Chronicles' series available at Amazon.com, a rambling blog at jjgoodman.blogspot.com, and musings on all things 'Star Wars' here at That Hashtag Show.